Last week we found out what burned vampire remains look like. To kick off Fridays's episode, we witnessed Bill's staking of Longshadow. Ignoring his choice of an ale pump handle as makeshift weapon – and the unceremonious offing of poor Longshadow by Bass – it's by far the most gruesome scene yet. Sookie is on the receiving end of the fountain of gore and ends up, once again, looking like Carrie on prom night. Ginger throws up. I think she speaks for us all.

Eric and Pam, meanwhile, are watching this grim scene with an air of detached amusement. It's fun to see vampires who are less cartoon-cruel than Bill's villainous nest from earlier in the series, but mean nonetheless. Eric takes Bill aside and berates his mainstreaming efforts, all the while making it clear that reparations must be paid for his crime. He loves having the upper hand almost as much as Bill hates him having it. Sookie, however, is slow on the uptake: "Is Bill in some kind of trouble?"

Amy and Jason clearly are in some kind of trouble, and Amy gets considerably creepier in this episode, especially when kidnapped vampire Eddie warns Jason that she's a psychopath. Jason's obviously shocked by what they're doing, but Amy's blasé and giggly, making it obvious that it's not her first vamp-napping. It's odd to see Jason as the voice of reason and it's all very tense – until they help themselves to some of Eddie's blood and finally get down to the sex, which takes them on an imaginary Edenic voyage through nature. It's sweet, until we realise that they're actually in a grotty basement in full view of poor old Eddie. Drugs are bad, mmmkay?

Bill walks Sookie home, but as soon as they open the front door they find that Tina the cat has been beheaded and strung up on the fan. Sookie remains surprisingly bloody-minded about the whole thing, though she does finally decide to leave the house of horrors and stay at Bill's for a while. Not that Bill will be at home, since he's soon whisked off by Eric and Pam to face the consequences of his vamp-on-vamp crime. "If I had any feelings, I'd have the chills right about now," Pam drawls, as she watches Bill and Sookie share an emotional farewell snog.

There's a lot of not-so-great Tara and Sam stuff, as the exorcism storyline drags on, but the cliffhanger is a biggie: Sam is the dog! There were a few pointers back in the earlier episodes, but as they showed Sam with the dog too, there was also some sneaky red herring action going on. Did you see it coming? Who picked off Sookie's pet? I'd almost forgotten about the serial killer storyline. And more importantly, where is Bill going? And what will we do without his glare?